RBH Home
  Maps & Travels
  Articles
  Legends
  Towns & Villages
  Castles & Houses
  Churches
  Biographies
  Gentry
  Family History
  Odds & Ends
  For Kids
  Teacher's Page
  Mail David

• In Saxon times, Sonning was the home of a minor King called Sunna. It means 'Sunna's People'. He owned other villages at Sunninghill, Sunningdale and Sunningwell. His kingdom covered most of East Berkshire. It was called Sunningum.
• In AD 909, Sonning Church became a Cathedral for the new Bishop of Ramsbury & Sonning. Ramsbury is in Wiltshire, near Hungerford. The Bishop had a wooden palace next to his Cathedral where they often lived.
• Later the Bishop moved his Cathedral to Salisbury in Wiltshire, but he still lived at the palace in Sonning when visiting Berkshire.
• In Medieval times, the palace was rebuilt in stone. In 1337, the Bishop was given permission to 'crenellate' it, like a castle.
• Lots of pilgrims visited Sonning to see the relic of St. Sarik which was kept in the church.
• During King John's war with his Barons, he made the Bishop of Salisbury keep some of his enemies prisoner at Sonning Palace.
• Queen Isabella was also imprisoned there in 1396. Her husband, King Richard II, had been locked up by his cousin, Henry IV, who wanted to be King instead.
• Richard's friend, the Earl of Salisbury from Bisham 'Abbey' Manor, tried to start a rebellion against King Henry. He visited Isabella at Sonning, but she couldn't help him. She was only 7 years old!
• In Tudor times, Queen Elizabeth I bought Sonning Palace. She visited occasionally but left a steward to look after it for most of the time.
• Later Kings and Queens ignored the place and it began to fall down. Just before the English Civil War, King Charles I was short of cash and sold it to raise some money.
• In 1654, Sir Thomas Rich bought the old palace. He pulled it down and built himself a new house called Holme Park. He was a rich merchant from Gloucester.
• A Georgian House was built there by the Palmer family in 1796 and updated again in 1881.
• The house is now the Reading Blue Coat School.